


A picture is worth a thousand words

by tessascottxxi



Category: Figure Skating RPF, Olympics RPF
Genre: F/M, Fluffy, Friendship, Kid Fic, Pointless, SO FLUFFY, Tessa and Scott being domestic af, and Chiddy!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-04-28 13:43:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14450484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tessascottxxi/pseuds/tessascottxxi
Summary: A photographic journey of Tessa and Scott's relationship, through the eyes of our favourite third wheel.Now up, Chapter 3 featuring a VERY pregnant Tessa, cooking disasters, and Liv and Uncle Chiddy at the zoo





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know. I was staying up too late watching old VM programs because I've lost control of my life, and stopped because I had a headache. And then, alone with my thoughts, this popped into my head and begged to be written down. Its not great by any means, and my head feels like its going to split open, but I hope you enjoy. It's now 4am, these 2 have ruined my life, its Vancouver all over again, goodnight.

"Chiddy!" Tessa exclaims excitedly, when she hears the front door open. "It's so good to see you!" she says as she pulls him into a hug. "Did you really think you could get away with coming to Montreal and not come see us?" She pushed him away light heartedly, with a smirk on her face. 

Tessa had been pleasantly surprised to receive a text from Scott about 2 hours ago: 'Chiddy is here for ACI, he's supposed to stay in a hotel, but I'm dragging him home with me'. 

"I wasn't trying to avoid you, I didn’t know how much time I’d have, it's my first time having any skaters at an international competition, even if it's just a little one. And I know you guys are busy too, especially with Scott's team competing too. But, when I ran into this one at training, he didn’t really give me a choice" Chiddy gestured towards Scott with a chuckle. 

Tessa glanced over to her husband, meeting his warm eyes and big smile, before he leans in for a gentle kiss. Patrick rolls his eyes but had a soft smile on his lips. 

Scott had mischief in his eyes when he pulled back, "T, is that-" 

"Pizza. It was that or cereal, and I figured we had reason to celebrate" 

"Chiddy, you saved me from another night of cereal! Let's eat, I'm starving!" 

Patrick followed Tessa and Scott into the kitchen, he had not yet been to their new home in Montreal, despite them moving in almost 2 years ago. He didn't get to visit his best friend nearly as much as he would like since they grew up, got jobs and lived across the country from each other. Luckily, they saw each other a lot at competitions, both having up and coming skaters in the junior division, Scott in dance, Patrick in singles. 

"Livvy!" Scott shouted when they entered the kitchen, greeting his 13 month old daughter, who is sitting in her high chair, patiently waiting for her pizza. 

"dadadadadaadaa!" Olivia bangs excitedly on her tray, before holding her arms out to her dad, wanting to be picked up. 

Scott picks her up, and swings her in the air, before bringing her in for a hug, and peppering kisses all over her face as she giggles happily. 

"Say hi to uncle Chiddy" Scott says as he places Liv on his hip. 

Despite all the pictures Scott proudly sends him, Chiddy hasn't seen Olivia in almost 6 months and is struck by her bright green eyes, wispy, dark hair and chubby cheeks. 

"Hi Livvy" says Patrick "You're getting so big now! And you look so much like your mommy" 

Olivia curls shyly into her father's chest. 

"It's not you Chiddy" Tessa says "Lately she doesn't want anything to do with anybody, except Scott and me. Now, let's eat!" 

 

The 3 friends fall into easy conversation over supper, like they haven't spent any time apart at all. Before they know it over an hour has past, and they probably could've spent all night talking, if Olivia didn't make it very clear that she wasn't enjoying being left out of the fun. 

"Oh Livvy" Said Tessa, appraising her daughter who was covered head to toe in pizza sauce, including in her hair. "Say daddy, give me a bath!" 

"baff, baff!" Liv shouted, kicking her legs around wildly. 

"Yes, my princess" Scott replied, before scooping her into his arms, kissing her messy cheek and taking her upstairs. 

 

Patrick and Tessa head to the living room after putting the dishes away, Patrick exploring the room, and glancing around at all the photos in frames as Tessa turns on the fire place. 

On the left side of the room, underneath the window, sat a white chest, covered in framed photos. First, in a little red frame, was a photo of Tessa and Scott, in their first year of their partnership. Scott in a too big tuxedo, one hand holding Tessa's, the other resting on her hip. Tessa in a white dress, with big lacy sleeves, bangs and a wide, toothy grin. Patrick grins at the photo, in awe of how far those little kids had come. 

The next photo was in a wooden, rectangle frame, and depicted Tessa and Scott standing on the top of the podium, so painfully tiny next to the other 2 teams, but with blinding smiles, accepting their first gold medals. Over 20 years had passed since that photo was taken, but not much else had changed, Tessq and Scott were still on top of the world. 

The rest of the chest was covered in photos of Tessa and Scott in their preolympic days. Toothless with big ice cream cones. In their bathing suits at the beach for May Long weekend. In front of the Eiffel Tower and the Staue of Liberty and Buckingham Palace. Even Chiddy was in some of the pictures, from the embarrassingly prepubescent days, travelling all around the world for different competitions. 

The next thing that caught Chiddy's eye, was the glittering of 10 Olympic medals from behind a glass frame, all together, in chronological order. 

Underneath the medals, were 3 pictures, in simple white frames. The photo on the left depicted the infamous goose list from the Vancouver games. The photo on the right showed the final ending pose of Moulin Rouge, from Pyeong Chang. Instead of seeing a photo from Sochi in the middle frame, Chiddy was surprised to see his own face smiling back at him, in a group photo of the gold medal winning team from the 2018 games, hands clasped together, jumping in the air, just minutes after the victory ceremony. Chiddy took a look around and discovered that, other than the 4 silver medals hanging dutifully in their frame, there was no evidence whatsoever of the Sochi games. 

Chiddy continued to walk through the living room, admiring more photos as he went. Photos of Kate and Alma, arms around each other at the infamous Virtue-Moir wedding. Of Scott with his brothers, Tessa with her siblings. Tessa and Scott again in front of the Eifel Tower, this time older and with Tessa showing off the glittering ring on her finger. Photos of Olivia in every state imaginable. Fast asleep as a little baby, in the pool with her uncles, covered in cake on her first birthday. He noticed a large frame on the wall, the picture illustrating Tessa and Scott in their ending pose of 'Latch', with a gold GPF medal hanging on either side. He chuckled at that one and Tessa caught his eye. 

"Hey, those were a long time coming" she laughed. 

 

As Chiddy sat down in the chair near the fire, Scott entered the room with a now clean and pajama clad Olivia, walking between his feet, holding tightly to Scott's fingers. 

"Mama!" Olivia gleefully shouted, as Scott and Olivia joined Tessa on the couch, Scott throwing an arm around his wife's shoulders, letting Olivia curl up between them. 

As Chiddy let the little family have their privacy, he looked up at the 2 biggest pictures in the room. 

In an ornate gold frame, was Tessa and Scott on their wedding day, radiating all the love, light and happiness that Chiddy remembers from that day. The photo was a simple one, compared to the others in the room, just showing Tessa and Scott clinking together flutes of champagne. But what really makes the photo is the looks on their faces. Tessa is looking at Scott like he hung the moon and all the stars, and Scott is looking right back in reverence, like he can't quite believe that this is his life. Looks that said more than words ever could, looks that never really left their faces anymore. 

The final (and biggest) picture in the room is a large canvas hanging above the fireplace. It's a photo of Olivia, no more than a week old. She's fast asleep, looking oh so tiny, curled up small in a basket, wearing only a diaper, and a pair of teeny, tiny knitted white skates on her feet. 

Patrick tears his eyes away from the photo to look around the living room once again. He feels like he just went on a 25-year journey, ending with Olivia. The photo of her being the culmination of all those before it. And he thinks that pictures really are worth 1000 words. 

 

Later, when Tessa has taken Olivia up to bed, he and Scott are sitting in the living room, drinking beer talking quietly on the couch, with the hockey game on mute. They talk about anything and everything. And when Chiddy gets up to grab 2 more beers from the kitchen for them to toast their first international competition as coaches, he sees a photo he had missed before. It's just a little photo, black and white, and a little blurry, stuck to the side of the fridge, not quite on display just yet. The photo is dated from yesterday, and Chiddy just smiles and thinks to himself, that sometimes photos are worth more than just 1000 words, they're worth a lifetime.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning on continuing this, but it was writing itself in my head while I was trying to sleep and I just had to get it out. I've read it, I know it sucks, but it was driving me nuts, so maybe now I can sleep! Catch me on tumblr @tvmoivefan

Patrick woke up the next morning with a aching head and a dry mouth, as he groaned and rolled over to turn off his alarm. He and Scott had stayed up far too late and had far too many beers for the night before their first official practice, at their first official international competition as coaches. Staying up late and drinking before something important was nothing unusual for he and Scott, but they were getting older and recovery was not so easy anymore. He stretched and groaned one last time before rolling out of bed, throwing some clothes on and venturing out of the guest room in hopes to find some coffee and advil.

What he wasn't expecting to see however, was Scott, bright and chipper, giving no indication that he'd only gone to bed 4 hours ago with 5 beers in his system. He was standing at the kitchen island, drinking a cup of coffee and chatting away with his daughter, who would occasionally babble in response, but mostly just giggle at her father's antics.

Patrick shuffled tiredly into the kitchen and sat at one of the bar stools before placing his head down onto the cold surface.

"Morning Chid!" Scott exclaimed pushing a mug of coffee across the island.

"Ugh, too loud" Chiddy grumbled, barely lifting his head up "how on earth are you so chipper this early?"

"Because its a special day, Chiddy! We get to coach at an international competition today!"

"Its just practice"

"Even better! No nerves! Only fun!"

Olivia picking up on her father's excitement clapped her hands together with a big grin on her face.

"Even Livvy's excited for us!"

"You're crazy, man" Patrick mumbled into his arm, as he lay his head back down onto the granite countertop, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep.

The sound of Scott's sharp laugh, and the shutter of his iPhone camera caused Chiddy to look up once more, and he couldn't stop the grin that took over his face when he looked over and saw that little Olivia had laid her head down on her tray in the perfect imitation of one tired, and hungover Patrick Chan. His grin turned into an outright laugh when she brought her head up and he saw all the cheerios now stuck to her face. More laughter and pictures from Scott over the silly girl. 

"C'mon Monkey" Scott wiped Olivia's face and lifted her out of her seat "lets go see Mama. Hey Chid! Look up the schedule and see what rinks we're supposed to be in" Scott said (still to loud for Patrick's liking) "its saved in my photos, the code is 1997" and he threw his phone over to Chiddy, who caught it, fumbling. Scott grabbed a mug of coffee, sat Olivia on his hip and headed upstairs.

Patrick opened Scott's camera roll, smiled at the new picture of him and Olivia, side by side with their heads down. Before scrolling up to find the practice schedule for the morning. As he was about to shut off Scott's phone, he noticed a video of his dance team practicing and clicked on it. He was so impressed, they looked so much better than the last time he saw them at Nationals. He was proud of Scott, finally getting to be the great coach everyone knew he would be. He scrolled through and watched some more footage of his team practicing. Videos of his team, turning into videos of Olivia. And he didn't mean to pry, really, but Scott had been upstairs for 10 minutes and he had to amuse himself somehow.

There was Olivia, taking 2 shaky steps toward Tessa before falling on her bum. Scott's sobs and loud shout of excitement in the background. There was Olivia splashing around in the water at the pool. Olivia being twirled around by Scott at the rink at Gadbois. 

Patrick watched these with a soft smile on his face. He was so happy for his friend, finally having everything he wanted in life.

He continued to scroll through the camera roll as it was now 15 minutes and Scott showed no signs of reappearing. He didn't think Scott would mind anyway, many of these pictures he had already seen, as he was a part of the group chat called 'Olivia's fan club' that Scott sent updates to about 5 times a day.

Some of the pictures, however, were new. There was the sonogram picture that he saw on the fridge the night before, as well as 14 other versions of the same photo. 

There was Tessa, fast asleep in bed with Olivia curled into her chest, also asleep, with her tiny hands fisted into her mother's shirt, holding her impossibly close.

There was selfies. Selfies of Scott with a dog he met while out on a run. Selfies of Scott with Olivia, with the puppy filter overlaying their features. Selfies with Tessa, all dolled up as she laid a kiss on his cheek.

There was Olivia in the bath. Olivia at the lake. Olivia sitting with her Grandma Kate around a labour day campfire. Olivia in a Leafs jersey, and Olivia playing in the sand.

The only person to rival Olivia in Scott's photos (and Scott's heart) was Tessa. There was Tessa at the rink, talking with his team. Tessa smiling wide, with tears in her eyes at the doctor's office. Tessa perched on Scott's lap around a campfire. Tessa at the beach, wearing a bikini. 

And then, Tessa wearing less than a bikini. Chiddy threw the phone across the counter as though it had burned him, just as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"You figure it out, man?" He heard Scott's voice call out.

"Ya, I'm in rink A at 7:15, you're in rink C at 7:35."

"Let's hit the road then" Scott finally appeared at the bottom of the stairs. His face flushed, his shirt wrinkled and his hair significantly more messed up than before he went upstairs. 

And at least Chiddy could blame his involuntary gagging on his hangover.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 featuring a VERY pregnant Tessa, cooking disasters, and Liv and Uncle Chiddy at the zoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess I wasn't done with this story just yet. This is probably the longest non-academic thing I have ever written, which is a little pathetic, because its not long at all, but I am still proud of myself, I hope you enjoy.

It was 6 months before Patrick found himself back in the Virtue/Moir household. After a very impressive junior debut, Patrick’s top student, Kyle, had qualified to compete at Junior Worlds, which were being held in Laval that year. While Scott’s best dance team had missed by a hair, and were named first reserves, Scott had still insisted that Patrick stayed at their house for the week, besides with Gadbois being named one the the official practice rinks for the event, Scott had already been roped into helping out all week. 

And that was how, 6 months after his last visit, Patrick found himself ringing the doorbell of Tessa and Scott’s Saint-Henri home. It took Patrick about 2 full seconds upon entering the foyer to realize that this visit would be markedly less calm than his last one. Maybe it was Scott, answer the door with an exasperated look on his face and what looked to be mashed potatoes in his hair. Or perhaps it was Olivia, who Scott was holding under his arm like a football, squirming around in only a diaper, with what looked to be mashed potatoes all over her body. Maybe it was the faint smell of smoke in the air. Whatever it was exactly, Patrick was starting to have second thoughts about turning down the 5 star hotel room offered to him by Kyle’s parents, assuring them he’d be perfectly content staying with his good friends. 

“Hey Chiddy!” Scott exclaimed loudly, seemingly unphased by the chaos going on around him “come on in!”. Patrick was about to follow Scott into the house, when Scott grabbed his elbow and quickly whispered under his breath “don’t say anything”.

Patrick was only confused about what exactly this meant until they entered the kitchen a minute later to see mashed potatoes everywhere, which he had expected, what he hadn’t expected to see was what seemed to be a pressure cooker sitting innocently on the counter. The pressure cooker seemed to be the source of the mess, but Patrick was not exactly sure what happened until Olivia pointed to the ceiling and giggled. Patrick followed her little finger to see the lid of the pressure cooker somehow lodged into the ceiling. He looked down from the ceiling to see a massive scratch on the cupboard, no doubt done by the lid on the way up. He let out a small, barely audible “oh” as he put 2 and 2 together. And then Tessa, standing in the middle of the mess, burst into tears. 

Scott placed Olivia down and pulled Tessa into a hug “baby, it’s not your f-”

“Don’t put her down, there’s glass on the floor!” Tessa shouted desperately, glaring dangerously at Scott. 

“What do you mean there’s glass on the floor?”

Patrick scooped up Olivia as she streaked past him, trying to prevent more disaster, as Tessa breathed a sigh of relief, and then picked up her foot to show Scott the large piece of glass sticking out of the bottom of it, an alarming amount of blood pooling on the floor.

Tessa had silent tears streaking down her cheeks as Scott lifted her onto the counter and gently removed a sizeable piece of glass before wrapping her foot tightly in a dish towel.   
Patrick quietly observed the scene in front of him, hanging on tightly to a still squirmy Olivia, before Tessa whispered “I thought it was the crockpot” before bursting out laughing, tears of frustration and pain still staining her cheeks. Scott and Olivia joined in the laughing fit a minute later as Patrick looked on incredulously.

Patrick Chan had seen Tessa Virtue at every stage of her life. In the highest of her highs and the lowest of her lows, but he had never seen her quite like this before. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone, but Tessa had always scared him a little, but Tessa at 37 weeks pregnant was terrifying. He’d only been in the house for 10 minutes and she’s already displayed more emotion in that time, than he’d seen her show in the last 20 years. Yes, Patrick deduced, this visit might be a little less calm than his last one.

A minute later, Tessa composed herself, put on her best press conference smile, like she wasn’t still covered in blood, sweat and mashed potatoes, and very primly stated “Hey Chiddy, welcome”. 

And Patrick couldn’t help but join the laughing fit. 

 

 

2 hours later, when the glass was swept up, the potatoes were cleaned off counters and hair, Patrick sat with Tessa on the couch, their bellies full of chinese food, as they watched Scott play on the floor with Olivia. 

Tessa has always been one of Patrick’s favourite people. She’s funny, considerate and hard working. They’ve had many heart to hearts in the past, and Patrick had always thought of her as one of his best friends. They were talking about all the success Kyle had been having that year, and how prepared he was for his first junior worlds, and Tessa promised to swing by his first practice the day after tomorrow. They talked about the big day that Scott and Chiddy had tomorrow, planning to take Olivia to the zoo, to give Tessa some time to relax. 

Tessa groaned and pressed her hand into her lower back.

“You okay?” Patrick asked, worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine, my back is just sore all the time. It’s a lot of work carrying a whole child around inside you, not to mention all the running after that demon” she said with affection, pointing at Olivia. “I thought the terrible twos weren’t supposed to start until she was, you know, two” she laughed.

“She’s just advanced!” Scott chimed in from where he was laying on the floor, running a toy train across Olivia’s forehead as she giggled happily.

“Hey Scott, it’s time for her to go to bed” Tessa said a few minutes later.

“Yeah, yeah, 5 more minutes, T” Scott said without even looked up. 

And not for the first time that night, Patrick was sure he got whiplash from how quickly Tessa’s mood changed. 

“Scott” she said, her voice threatening, her eyes shooting daggers into Scott’s back , and Chiddy began to wonder if Scott only insisted he stayed there to ensure Tessa didn’t kill him with her bare hands.

“Okay Livvy, bed time!” Scott scooped Olivia up and headed for the stairs without a second thought.

“That’s my cue” Tessa says before she lets out a big yawn. “See you in the morning Chiddy” she says as she leans down to give him a kiss on the cheek and head up to bed. 

 

15 minutes later and Scott joins him on the couch with a beer and an apology. “Sorry man, it’s usually not this crazy, I swear. Liv was just a hellian today, and Tessa is hormonal and feeling sick, which is never a good combination. At least she probably won’t kill me when you’re here”.

“I knew that’s why you asked me to stay here!” Patrick laughs as Scott smirks guiltily behind his beer bottle. 

“I love her and I’m so excited for the new baby, but damn, pregnancy is wild.

Patrick just nodded, lost in his thoughts of a big conversation he had with his fiancee last week. 

They talked for another hour before Scott could no longer hide his yawns and Patrick suggested they head off to bed to get some rest before their day the zoo with one wild toddler. 

 

 

Patrick never got to enjoy that long sleep though, because shortly after he closed his eyes he was woken up by a loud pounding on the door. He groggily opened his eyes and looked at the clock, 2:53am. What on earth could be going on. The banging resumed “CHIDDY” Scott’s voice shouted from the other side of the door, “I’m coming in”.

Scott came rushing into the room, his face a panic and his hair a mess, wearing only jeans and one sock, trying and failing to pull a t-shirt over his head. “Chiddy, the baby is coming!”.

Now Patrick was awake.

“What?”

“The baby is coming”, Scott said, taking deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down “the baby is coming and my mom isn’t coming for 2 weeks, and I don’t know what to do!”.

Patrick had never seen Scott spiral this hard, and he wasn’t sure he was equipped to deal with this version of Scott, at this hour in the morning. He rolled out of bed, pulled on a hoodie, and led Scott out of the room to the living room where Tessa was sitting calmly on the couch waiting for her husband to pull himself together.

“What do you mean you don’t know what to do?” Patrick asked “You know exactly what to do, you’re going to take Tessa to the hospital right now, and I’m going to hang out with Olivia while we wait for her brother or sister”.

“You don’t mind Chiddy?” Tessa asked, “I’ll call my mom and Alma in the morning and see how soon one of them can come”.

“Of course I don’t mind, I’d love the opportunity to spend more time with my goddaughter, and we promised her the zoo didn’t we?”

“Oh Chiddy, you’re a lifesaver” Tessa pulls him into an awkward hug, her belly getting in the way, as Scott tearfully thanks him over and over.

“You gonna be able to pull it together man, or do you need me to drive you?” Chiddy laughed.

“He’ll be okay” Tessa says, a break in her voice as a contraction starts to take over. This pulled Scott out of his panic spiral as he quickly grabs Tessa’s hand and encourages her to breath with him. And when it’s over, Scott’s huge smile lights up his face “let’s go have a baby!!” He shouts, grabbing Tessa’s hospital bag, and the car keys and the head out to the garage as Chiddy waves goodbye from the doorway.

“Call if you need anything!” Tessa calls out from the window as they pull away, and Chiddy heads inside to try and catch some more sleep. 

 

He wakes up a few hours later to a small voice cracking over the baby monitor Tessa had given him on their way out. Not screaming, not crying, just talking. He looked at the screen to see Olivia sitting in her crib, holding a teddy bear and speaking quietly to herself in a mixture of english and baby babble, and Chiddy swears he hears some french in there too. He says a quick prayer to whoever will hear him that he will be able to handle Olivia today and heads out of bed to Olivia’s room.

She’s standing up holding onto the rails of her crib when he walks into the room. She tilts her head curiously and says “da?”. 

“Just you and me today, kiddo. A special Livvy and Uncle Chiddy day!”.

Olivia processes this news with a serious look on her face, before she looks back up at Patrick, flashes him a brilliant smile and lifts her arms up to him. He picks her up and gives her a big hug, before placing her down to change her diaper and get dressed. He picked out a plain white onesie with the words ‘Big Sister’ in black cursive across the chest and a pair of tiny jeans. “Perfect!” Chiddy told Olivia “Today you’re going to be a big sister!”. Olivia looked disinterested, but smiled anyway as he snapped a picture and sent it to Tessa and Scott, immediately receiving a heart emoji back from Tessa. 

After a quick breakfast of cereal and yogurt (while the kitchen was clean, there was still a little too much structural damage for Chiddy to feel comfortable cooking) and a little struggle with the stroller, Patrick and Olivia headed off on foot to Station Montmorency and rode the metro to the Biodome at Olympic Park. 

As they walked into Olympic Park, Patrick felt the overwhelming sense of pride and gratitude that he always did when he saw the Olympic rings standing tall and proud in front of the Montreal Tower. He parked Olivia’s stroller in front of the rings, snapped a picture and quickly sent it along to her parents before they head inside from the blustery March wind. 

Patrick loves the zoo, but Olivia LOVES the zoo. She laughed and laughed at the monkeys, flapped her arms around at the birds, puffed up her cheeks to the fish and jumped around like a frog. She loved each animal more than the next, but it was the penguins who really stole her heart. She sat and watched the penguins for an hour, tracking their every movement and shifting back in forth in her stroller trying to copy their walk. She probably could’ve watched them for another hour, if Patrick didn’t start to notice her eyes beginning to droop and yawns coming more frequently than not. 

“C’mon Livvy, let’s get a snack and go home for a nap” he told her and she was too tired to complain. 

As they sat in the in the little cafe splitting a double chocolate muffin, Patrick was overcome with love for the little girl with chocolate all over her entire face. He was so happy that he got to spend the day one-on-one with her. He was learning so much about her personality. He learned she was a morning person like Scott, and he learned she loved chocolate like Tessa. She was chatty like her dad at times, but stoic and thoughtful like her mom at others. She was her own person with a unique personality drawing the best traits from each of her parents, making her uniquely Olivia. 

One other thing that Patrick was surprised to learn that day was Olivia Moir was a chick magnet. He’s heard stories about men with babies getting hit on by strangers, but he didn’t think it was a real thing until it happened to him. With the first woman, he thought maybe she knew who he was, but that wasn’t the case, she seemed to be only interested in Olivia, which he couldn’t fault her on, she was pretty cute. Though he knew how his friend’s valued their daughter’s privacy, so he quickly turned the conversation away from Olivia, and that’s when it became clear that Olivia was the gateway to start flirting with him. And despite making it very clear that he was happily committed and just enjoying the day with his goddaughter, he still found himself throwing away 3 napkins containing phone numbers as they headed out. 

Olivia was fast asleep before they were even in the metro station, and was still out as Patrick gently placed her into her crib and headed to the kitchen to make himself a coffee, and relax. While the morning was fun, he was quite tired himself. He sat on the couch, sent 10 pictures of the morning to Tessa and Scott, and asked it there was any news. 

S: progressing, but slowly. how’s liv?  
P: An angel, I don’t know what you guys were talking about, terrible twos are not a thing, not yet anyway.  
S: hahahahahaha  
T: You’re going to regret saying that  
P: Whatever you say  
P: Hang in there T, we’ll be waiting for news!  
T: <3

Patrick must’ve dozed off on the couch, because the next thing he knew, he was jolted awake by frantic crying upstairs. He turned the corner into Olivia’s room to see her face down in the crib, screaming louder than he thought her little lungs would be capable of, gripping tightly to the bars of her crib, kicked her little feet around. She sat up when Patrick came in, her face beet red. 

“What’s the matter, Livvy?” Patrick asked gently as he picked her up, rubbing her back. She stopped screaming when she was in his arms, but little whimpers continued into his shoulder.  
“Ma?” Olivia asked in a little voice that almost broke Patrick’s heart.

“I’m sorry Liv, mama isn’t here right now”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say as Olivia broke in to heart wrenching sobs. He tried everything to calm her down. He changed her diaper, cuddled her, tried to feed her supper, even tempted her with chocolate ice cream, but nothing seemed to soothe the little girl. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to see a new text from Scott.

S: giving her a bath usually calms her down.

Patrick didn’t even care about not giving Scott the satisfaction that he was right, that yes, Olivia was in her terrible twos, and started to draw a warm bubble bath. The minute Olivia’s toes touched the water, she was quiet. Once she was fully submerged, and handed her rubber ducks, she had a big smile on her face and bubbles in her hair. He took a picture and giggled along with her as she splashed around. He sent Scott the picture, along with a quick thanks, and went back to watching Olivia have the time of her life in the bath. It was another 20 minutes before Scott replied.

S: told’ya ;)  
P: Shut up  
S: My mom is on her way, she should be there in 2 hours, you’ve almost survived!  
P: We’re coping

As the bath water cooled down, Patrick started preparing himself for what he was sure was going to be another toddler breakdown, and counting down the time until Alma was expected to arrive. It never came however, and half an hour later Patrick found himself sitting on the couch, with Olivia on his lap, in her pyjamas, eating leftover KD. He was sure that Tessa would kill him if she saw them eating on her white couch, but Olivia was calm snuggled up in his arms, surrounded by warmth and pictures of her family.

Patrick was still sitting contently in the warmth of the fire, Olivia dozing on him, when his phone rang. It was Alma, telling him she was just a few minutes away, and could he please unlock the door for her. As Patrick carefully shifted Olivia onto the couch, careful not to wake her up as he stood up, he felt his phone vibrate once again and unlocked it to see it was a message from Scott. After all the pictures Patrick had been sending to Scott all day, he finally received a picture in return. 

It was, of course, a baby. All tiny, wrinkled and pink, fast asleep, wrapped up tightly in a soft pink blanket, curled up on Tessa’s chest, who was also asleep. Patrick felt the tears forming in his eyes as he smiled down at the picture, and then at the little girl sleeping next to him. Blurrily through his tears, he read the accompanying text, 

‘Lucy Kate Moir’

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat with me on tumblr! @tvmoivefan


End file.
